Quote:This however only goes to underline the fact that the KR were not Western backed as IandI had stated !

Okay, just we don't know fully well yet. All we can do is speculate. Hell, even now we can tell Orwell wasn't a communist but a government informant.

That took decades, and finally his list coming out in early 2000s to verify this.

So, I'm just saying it's not definite but it seems that the West didn't support them initially but became their ally after the Invasion.

Agreed?

Quote:Well he could have decided to remain in exile and not confer legitimacy
on the KR through the huge reverence in which his population held him.

That'd mean accepting defeat and giving legitimacy to a dictatorship that goes on pars with the levels of badness the KR did. Give Lon Nol a few years? He'd do the same thing KR did. Just with different titles and meanings and reasons.

Which was no an option, as meaning he'd give up his crown as well as he wanted to retain unto the country.

Quote:If he decided his actions on his own then I personally consider them stupid.

As you wish.

Quote:Whilst I don't consider "royalty" to be a legitimate mandate to govern,
wouldn't the "cleverer" (maybe easier) thing to do have been to position
himself as some sort of guardian of the nation through troubled times,
basically sitting it out to see how the dust settles.

If Lon Nol would let him..which seems all contrary to what we've seen. US wanted nothing to do with him, and military dictators don't like giving any sort of power back to the former wielder of it. Just look at South Korea in the 1970s and 80s under their own military Junta.

Plus, He wanted the Throne back. Through this, likely he'd regain America's support. Or so /he/ thought, as did Castro when taking out Batista. The US never did like it's dictatorships being thrown out...So, could it have been more clever? Yes. But that assumes he had the patience and reasoning that Lon Nol would give him this position, the US would allow it, and he'd eventually get the Throne back.

Quote:Are you suggesting that the loss of the oil refinery was a cause for the implementation of the Year Zero policy ?

Suggesting that with the destruction of what was the Industrial base of Cambodia, they really had no choice. The lands were being scorched, and soon enough the farms won't be able to produce enough food for the cities or what remains of them. US had no..hesitation to bomb villages or cities. Except the capitol, least they hit their puppet. But they didn't mind hitting close to the capitol.

So, they had no choice but to do the Year Zero. It could have been done ALOT better, there is no doubt.

But, it wasn't just through someone thinking "..you know what would be a great idea? A total agricultural nation! Let's go back an do some agricultural stuff gais!" and Pol Pot just thought it was the best idea since underwear and went along with it.

I think Capitalism has been manipulated because the markets are not free as Capitalism intends. There is no longer competition due to how big corperations have grown and that is not capitalism because it eliminates the very thing the ideology is based on - Competition.